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Minnesota Twins: The Weird Feeling of Being Optimistic

By Collin Kottke |

I’m optimistic. Yes, I am. It’s a hard thing to say too after years of horrible baseball, but I am optimistic about the Minnesota Twins.

After starting 1-6 this season, I was ready to write the boys of summer off before summer really truly ever rolled around. Everything was horrible, pitching, defense, offense, you name it and it was less than prime. Something happened after the home opener.

Maybe it was a team finally gelling, something Torii Hunter said after the Twins’ victory on Sunday over the division foe Cleveland Indians, or maybe the rust finally fell off. Whatever it was, it has made me feel optimistic going into the third week of the season.

The Twins won two straight series at home against teams that are projected to be much better than themselves and pulled themselves out of the basement of the American League Central into third place, of course, still five games behind the first place and seemingly unbeatable Detroit Tigers.

Hunter is starting to look a little bit like the Hunter that Twins fans are used to after being moved to the two-hole in the batting order. Mauer is getting on base every game and his averages looks like it will settle in the usual Mauer range in the .300’s. Hell, Kurt Suzuki has two home runs which ties him with Trevor Plouffe for the team lead. Tommy Milone has looked like an ace and Trevor May has looked good in his pair of starts in the big leagues.

There’s still plenty of time for things to go wrong. For the -20 run differential to hurt or Phil Hughes not finding the form he found last year, but for once let’s not look at the negative.

Let’s look at the positive: the Twins are a sweep of the Kansas City Royals away from being a game out of second place in the division.

I’m optimistic. It’s nice to have this feeling once again, even if it is just for a little bit.

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